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Smith, Steinhagen face off in DixmoorBy THOM GIBBONSLife-long Dixmoor resident Jerry Smith is squaring off against former fire chief Kenneth Steinhagen in the fight to see who will be the next mayor of the village. Each heads a complete slate of candidates.Smith, 52, was born and raised in Dixmoor. He has raised his family in Dixmoor, but laments that none of his children wanted to stay in the village, “because there was no work.”Steinhagen came to Dixmoor as a young railroad worker in the early 1950s. He and his wife have raised one daughter who resides in town and works for National Railway Equipment Company.From 1960 until April, 1988, Steinhagen served as fire chief. In one of the late Mayor Kenneth Fisher’s last acts, he appointed Steinhagen as a village trustee to serve out an unexpired term.Smith is also a trustee. One of his fellow trustees, Bennie Holloway, is his father-in-law.Smith is campigning on a platform to eliminate the village’s deficit. “To me this shouldn’t be.” He has not said what this year’s projected deficit will be.He says the elimination of jail guards and replacing them with senior citizens and eliminating the police clerk “and other clerks” wouldhelp to lower the village’s deficit. He also wants to lower police officerssalaries.“Their salaries are too high. At the rate they’re getting paid we should be able to get better services,” Smithsaid.On the other hand, Steinhagen does not foresee having to make many changes in the police department. “Our police are the best paid they have been in years.”But there is a problem keeping well trained police officers. One problem is they do not have a pension fund. “I just don’t know where the money is going to come for that,” he said. “It seems they get the training and just move on.”Steinhagen said there has been a question of restructuring the chief’s position into that of public safety director, “But that needs some hard study first.”Smith does not contemplate changing the cammand structure. But he says hiring senior citizens for jail guards would be cost effective, and, “It would give some work to people who need it.”If that is not feasible, he wants to make arrangements with other po-’ (Please turn to Page A-2)
Newspaper Details
Harvey Star
Harvey, Illinois, US
Sun, Apr 02, 1989
Page 1
Full Page
Clipped by
Patuxent R.
AL, USA 27 Feb 2025
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